Jeff Samardzija

Jeff is a player that I have followed for a while now. He played sports at nearby Valparaiso high school then starred in football and basketball at Notre Dame. From there he has risen to the Majors playing in nearby Peoria and Iowa before ending up with the Cubs. He has stayed near the area making his rise fun to watch. (more…)

It is weird how things turn out sometimes. Jeff played high school not too far away in Valpo. He played my Slicers in both football and baseball. He then went on to star at Notre Dame in football. He was arguably the third best pitcher on the Notre Dame pitching staff as well. He then signed a nice big contract to play baseball. He really has not found the success that many would have hoped he would have. He is in the bigs though, and that is much farther than most get. I have seen him pitch on multiple levels, and you have to root for the local kid. (more…)

As I alluded to earlier I made the 2011 card of Jeff Samardzija today. This is the first Cubs card for the 2011 set. I have included some of the changes that I decided on at the end of the preview process. I have changed the numbers so that they are outlined. I love how they look that way. The only problem with doing that was that it made the diamond that separated the name and position look odd. I just took that out. I like this card this way because it makes the number stand out a little more. (more…)

I already had two cards from last years set with Jeff on them. I really faked an Iowa Cubs card, and I had a ‘short print’ Notre Dame card for him. I saw him pitch many times as a member of the Irish, and was lucky enough to finally see him pitch for the Cubs earlier this season. Since he picked up his first win of the season today I thought that I would post this card of him. Of course I could also be posting this so that I can post his 2011 csd Custom card. (more…)

Jeff Samardzija makes the set in short print form first. When he was at Notre Dame Samardzija was quite the draw. He would pack the stands when he made his Friday night starts. None of those was bigger than the one he made before the Blue Gold game in 2006. The stadium was packed and buzzing as Samardzija took the mound. After the 2006 season Jeff was selected by the Cubs in the 5th round of the MLB draft as the 149th pick. He chose to play baseball over football professionally, and spent the summer with the Peoria Cubs before coming back to Notre Dame to play his senior season for the Irish. He has had quite a career so far, and it will be fun to see where it takes him from here. (more…)